


Two Cogs of The Same Clock

by Iamanidot



Series: Ashes of a Broken Clock (Time Travel Tommy AU) [3]
Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, BAMF TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), BAMF Wilbur Soot, Can be read as Standalone tho, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff, Gen, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Sickfic, Slightly - Freeform, Takes place before Railway War, Time Travel Tommy AU, TommyInnit-centric (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot and Technoblade and TommyInnit are Siblings, Wilbur Soot-centric, part of a series, slight angst, technically, wilbur soot is a good brother
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-02-24
Packaged: 2021-03-15 03:41:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29677863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Iamanidot/pseuds/Iamanidot
Summary: Tommyinnit is the Man and the best! He was fine! Doing great!No, he wasnotsick, thank you very much, and it was not because of the rotten flesh he had eaten last night.Wilbur didn't seem to believe him though, thatprick.Or;In which Tommy is sick and stumbles on a mineshaft with his e-boy brother.
Relationships: IF YOU SHIP THESE TWO MEET ME AT DENNY'S AT 4 AM I DARE YOU, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Toby Smith | Tubbo & Wilbur Soot, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF)
Series: Ashes of a Broken Clock (Time Travel Tommy AU) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2165652
Comments: 9
Kudos: 148





	Two Cogs of The Same Clock

**Author's Note:**

> Warning! It is very much needed to know the context for this au, so it is very recommended to read the past works to this series. However, this can still be read as a standalone.

Zombies were a..very tricky subject. They were one of if not the most common mob to get summoned at night or in the dark,yet they were also however one of the weakest and most easiest mobs to kill. They were also part of the undead class of the Mob Chart approved by most village leaders, and so carried the weaknesses most of the class shared, that being the weaknesses against healing magic, and burnt in daylight.

However, a little known fact about zombies and husks, really, any mob that dropped rotten flesh, was that they were cursed, so you could say. Nobody truly knows how Zombies came to existence, they just appeared near a village cemetery one day, several centuries ago, with flesh as green as the ground they stood on and bodies cursed as the witches they had shunned. 

Now, what was the flesh cursed with, you may ask? Well, there are two ways a zombie can pass on its curse. One, was by biting down on their victim and transferring the curse through the blood stream, this is the most common and most accepted method for the passage of the zombie curse. The other, was less known, only to that of two people and the stars themselves. The one who created them, and the one who was the creator’s champion. The method? It was that any rotten flesh that was consumed would temporarily infect the one who ate it with a lesser version of the curse, with weaker symptoms, including the insatiable hunger and the weakness, however, their strength was enhanced ever so slightly.

And one, final, important symptom, or lack thereof, was that the lesser version doesn’t give the host that same desire for cannibalism that the version carried, so it was less likely to be noticed. One other thing, however, was that this lesser version was easier to cure than the original. It only required the host to consume a golden apple, no need for the weakness potions, and the host would be a host no longer, free from their visitors and free from their symptoms. 

The last thing to be of note for the lesser curse was that it was already known to the world in a different name, a different title.

**_Hunger_**.

* * *

Tommy was sick. Really sick. His stomach had been hurting all day and he thinks its probably because of the rotten flesh he ate last night (he had run out of steak and couldn’t be bothered to ask anyone, not even Tubbo, for food, so he had killed a zombie) and not the mountains of stress he was placing himself under for the past week in preparation for the Railway war. Or maybe it was both, he didn’t know, and he certainly didn’t care enough to find out. What he cared about, was how he was going to hide this from Wilbur, seeing as he had been notified by Tubbo, the snitch, that his little brother was currently overworking himself to high heaven gathering potions and materials for an upcoming event, and stumbling upon his younger brother in his current state would probably bring Wilbur to what he and Techno called the _“Mother Hen Phase.”_

Tommy hated when Wilbur was like that to him, he absolutely fucking hated it. If Wilbur acted like that to him, then that meant he was worrying the older male. It meant that Tommy was being weak. It meant that Tommy was being vulnerable. He hated it, hated feeling weak, he hated feeling vulnerable, it meant that the others would fuss over him like he was some weak child who couldn’t do shit, it meant that the others would risk their own health for his. 

And he loves them, really, he loves his family, he just would really love them a whole fucking lot more if they weren’t all self sacrificial pieces of shits. So of course, Tommy decided that the best course of action would be to pretend he was asleep when Wilbur would eventually come knocking, and pray to every god he knew that he wouldn’t notice the many piles of drafts he wrote in his plan on how to kill Dream, because he didn’t feel like having that conversation while he was sick and hungry.

(The list was surprisingly more than just Prime, seeing as Techno had been the actual, legitimate Blood God, and that Dream was a god of...something. he’d be caught dead before praying to the son of a bitch, though.)

A knock on the door. Fuck. Wilbur was here. He hadn’t even prepared his bed yet-- _fuck_ , he knew sleeping on his desk would be an awful idea, now all his drafts of plans on “The Most Efficient Way To Stab Dream In The Face” were all ruined and crumpled, and if he stared a bit closer then he’d have noticed the tear marks trailing past the ink, if he stared a little bit harder he’d have noticed the way it slightly crumpled near the edges. Tommy hadn’t noticed any of these details as he put away the piles of paper and ink and hid them in every chest he found that had even a semblance of space in it.

Another knock. He had to be faster. The noise of wooden chests being frantically opened and closed probably would have already alerted his older brother that something was off, so would the lack of angry yells coming from Tommy about how angry and pissed he was, but the boy wasn’t really in the right headspace to think about any of that as he made his way to his bed and did his best impression of a sleeping man, but instead ended up doing an impression of a fish flopping on land...somehow.

But it’ll be fine now! He was on the bed, and he had hidden all traces of his plans, the last thing to do was lay down and try his best to fall asleep. 

It was okay now, everything was okay.

* * *

_Everything was not okay._

Tubbo was somehow there and had opened the door for Wilbur _\- fucking traitor_ -and Tommy immediately regrets ever making his Tubbo his best friend and giving him the right of barging into his house anytime he liked. As soon as he would meet Ranboo in the future, Tommy swore to himself that he’d make the ender-hybrid be his new best friend, since he was pretty sure the lanky male wouldn’t snitch on him like Tubbo did. Was he overreacting? No, he was Tommyinnit and he always reacted to situation with the correct amount of emotions, shut the fuck up-

“Where did you say Tommy placed his bed again, Tubbo?” 

Fuck.

“Somewhere near the inner part, I think. Here, Tommy gave me a tour of his base, let me show you where he could be, Wilbur-”

_Fuck_.

“Hello there, child.”

**_Fuck._ **

“Tommyinnit is asleep right now, please come back later.”

A futile attempt to get the two away that ended in vain, as Wilbur sighs, his arms glowing a pale white, the telltale sign of the man reaching through his inventory for..something, he didn’t really know what. Tommy may have been the man and the best, but he wasn’t an admin, which meant he couldn’t peak into other people’s inventories directly. The glow stopped, and Wilbur held in his hand a wooden bowl of liquid and a spoon in his other hand. _Fuck_. The man had brought saturation suspicious stew. 

“Tommy, I got a question for you.”

“I told you bitch, Tommyinnit is currently asleep.”

The glowing restarted again, before fading once more. 

“Ah, since the child is currently asleep, he wouldn’t mind if I break his bed with the axe I’m holding right now, would he?”

_”You wouldn’t dare-”_

“I thought you were supposed to be asleep, Tommyinnit?”

_”Fuck you-”_

For a moment, Tommy thinks he’s free. For a moment, he thinks he’s outsmarted Wilbur and distracted him from what he was about to ask his little brother and for a moment, Tommy thinks that he’s escaped the “Mother Hen Phase.” Everything was finally going as planned.

* * *

_Everything was going horribly out of plan._

Tommy was currently hiding behind two layers of coblestone walls he had erected, his breathing shallow as to not alert the duo looking for him. After Wilbur had gotten tired of bullying him, he had pulled out the saturation soup and had given it to Tubbo in hopes that Tommy would eat it if it were his best friend giving it to him. Tommy hated that he was right. In spite of this, the child had ran from the house and blocked off the door to buy him time and hopped down the cliff and carved himself a hiding spot using a pickaxe he had stolen from his older brother, and had blocked off the entrance with two layers of cobblestone that he had on hand- err, inventory. 

The darkness was pretty scary, he wasn’t really that all enthused by the thought of being in a closed space with nothing but the cold to accompany him, but it wasn’t the worst setting he had ever been placed in so he gives it at 0.5 out of 10 instead of a 0, purely because he’s felt much worse than this.

He leans on the wall, and something seems off. It feels..a little empty..like it was- like it was _hollow_ \- His arm’s glow was the only source of light eclipsing the tunnel as his pickaxe made itself known to the claustrophobic air of the cramped area, as the iron tool pierced through the air and slammed against the wall in front of him. Granite collapsed, as Tommy found himself with three more pieces of granite in his inventory, and coming face to face with walls upon walls of a wide open space, grey stone walls splashed with veins of minerals and uneven carvings, stalagmites making itself known at the base of the cavern standing atop- _was that bedrock? how deep was this cavern_ \- an indestructible material known to most as bedrock, stalagmites hanging from the roof of the cave. An underground stream flowed near the middle, cutting off the area in half as chunks of the wall burst and in came molten rock, as magma flowed through the cave.

Tommy slumped deeper into the cavern, making sure as to not fall off the edge as he teetered across...well, the edge, and his eyes focused on a small bridge, narrow and wooden, and knew what he had to do. It was an abandoned Mineshaft, and the odds of a Golden Apple being in one of the chests was greatly higher than the odds of there being none. 

The blond was knocked out of his thoughts by a sound, a low smacking noise. It was that of a metallic object piercing through stone, and it was getting closer. Tommy grunted as he tried to limp faster, to try and attempt to escape his pursuers and for one second, he thinks he’s escaped. For one second, he’s free. For one second, he doesn’t need to hide from anyone anymore. The second ends, and it all comes crashing down. Literally. 

Tommy had stepped on a loose part of the edge, and the small hint of a cracking noise was all the warnings he had been given as he slid, barely hanging on the edge with his arms. He did wasn’t strong enough to pull himself up, he had nothing but himself to thank for it. Minutes passed, and the echoing noise of metal piercing stone grew ever closer, and Tommy could do nothing about it.

His arms burned as they grew tired, despite the boy being decently above average on his physical fitness for his age, he was also sick, hungry, and probably sleep deprived if he was being honest. He hadn’t had a nice sleep in weeks, his nightmares plagued by dreams and his dreams plagued by nightmares. _Sleep was nice_ , Tommy mused as his eyelids grew heavy.

The noise had gotten closer, and Tommy looked up to the wall near the edge he was hanging onto, and caught a glimpse of a metallic object. It was sharp, and it was- it demolished the wall in front of him, as the pickaxe was drawn back and a white glow signified the object’s return to its wielder’s inventory. _Wilbur was here. Fuck._

“H-hey, Wilby! Mind helping the big man out?”

“Did you just fucking call me Wilby?”

Fuck. He forgot about that part.

* * *

Tommy groaned as he was finally lifted up after a full straight minute of getting teased for calling his older brother Wilby. It wasn’t his fault that he forgot he never got to call Wilbur that in this timeline! Really! It was the fault of whoever sent him back in time in the first place, yeah! He swears he isn’t like Ranboo, no, he has photographic memory and whoever says otherwise will meet the business end of his netherite sword. He didn’t even know what that meant, but it sounded cool so he said it out loud. 

Another minute of laughter from ~~Wilby~~ his older brother later, and he had gotten fed up. He was Tommyinnit! The big man, the biggest man! He was not going to get hit with this disrespect, from his brother no less! However, before Tommy could retaliate with his impressive master plan of genius and intelligence, Wilbur spoke, his voice full of an emotion he couldn’t really recognize ever belonging to his older brother’s voice.

_~~Worry. Had Wilbur ever really been worried for him since Pogtopia?~~ _

“Tommy, I want you to be honest with me. What did you eat last night?”

Tommy shut his mouth, his lips tightening into a thin line as he quieted down. He didn’t want to say anything, he didn’t want to worry Wilbur. 

“...rotten flesh.”

But also, his shitty mouth betrayed him just like Tubbo had, so he was fucked the moment he had uttered those damned words.

“Anything else, Tommy? I’m not mad, heavens no, I’m just asking, yeah?”

“Yeah- uh, I ran out of steak, and-”

Tommy closed his eyes as he waited for the shout, as he waited for his brother to yell at him that he could have just asked, that he could have just been given some. Nothing came but silence, as Wilbur handed him the bowl of suspicious stew.

“Wha-”

“You’re hungry, right? Go on then, eat, you child. Or are you so young that you don’t even know how to do that?”

Tommy’s eyes did not water when Wilbur gave him the spoon, no. They were just sweating. The warm soup filled his stomach as saturation flowed through him, his body rapidly healing as he sighed with relief. He was feeling better now, and sure it would take nothing short of a golden apple to instantly quell the starvation effect the rotten flesh had given him, but he was feeling better.

The blond handed the empty bowl to his older brother, as the white light gleamed once more, and the older male pocketed the items in his inventory. Wilbur turned around, took a whiff of the cave’s air, and gazed at the structure, his eyes landing on the same wooden bridge Tommy had set his eyes on merely minutes ago. A twinkle glimmered its way into his glasses, as he straightened his military vest and smirked at Tommy.

“Feeling better?”

“Yeah, thanks Wilby-”

“You did it again.”

“I SAID WILBUR-”

“Nonesense, child. Now, ready yourself. We got ourselves a mineshaft to explore.”

Tommy had a bad feeling about this.

* * *

Tommy had a good feeling about this.

He grinned as his netherite sword cleaved through the spine of another cave spider, ducking out of the way of another as Wilbur shot at it with his crossbow. They were making steady progress, they had checked at least a quarter, minimum, of the mineshaft by now and had looked through every nook and cranny they passed along the pay, slashing the cobwebs for strings that Wilbur could use to fix his guitar along the way as they moved through the corridors, slashing at the occasional cave spider along their path.  
They had unfortunately, barely come across any minecart chests on the way, but it was alright. What they had found, however was nothing to scoff at. Seriously, who the fuck leaves iron behind? Like, sure it was incredibly common and was pretty easy to find in any cave, but also, what the fuck were they bloody on? Iron was one of the most versatile and most useful items in this shitty piece of crap they called life, and was essential to anyone attempting to even make it past their teenage years. The only excuse Tommy was taking were if the miners were killed or some shit, which, to be fair, was probably exactly what happened, but who the fuck died to cave spiders? 

He was getting sidetracked. Again. Anyway, they were exploring the mineshaft for golden apples, and potentially an enchanted apple. They weren't pushing their luck, however, if they didn't find an enchanted apple, they were leaving. They weren't greedy enough to search an entire mineshaft with just two people, anyone who did so was either named Technoblade or Dream, or they were insane. Although, both men listed were also most likely insane, so Tommy thinks that maybe all he needed to list was the latter part.

"Hey, Wilbur- I- I got a question for you," Tommy abruptly stated, washing away the silence with a practiced ease.

"Shoot, child." 

"Why are you helping me, again? Sure, we're like, brothers- but brothers don't-" Tommy continues, before he feels a familiar weight bubbling up in his throat, as he remembers cold caverns of emptiness, formerly graced by the warmth of two brothers now a husk of itself, as he remembers a cabin in the snow, warm campfires and scalding soup fed to him, he remembers everything. 

~~Sometimes, he wished he didn't~~.

"I'm not just doing this for some stupid family ties, Tommy- please, I'm not that big of an twat. No, I'm doing this because I fucking love you, Toms," Wilbur sighed fondly, as he turned and walked through the corridors of the empty mineshaft, humming a tune his brother knew full well the meaning to. "Now get over here, we're wasting time, let's find you a golden apple so you feel better soon."

Tommy followed suit, humming the same tune his brother had.

_My L'Manburg_

* * *

The humming continued, as Wilbur eventually grew tired of his crossbow and pulled out his bow instead, finding it much faster and more exhilirating. Another cave spider came jumping at him, and another arrow made its way into another arachnid's back as it hissed and whined before collapsing into ashes and faded into the air. 

They had found six more minecart chests by this point, and had still found no golden apples. Either someone had already found this place before, which was unlikely, given it was directly below Tommy's base, or they had the worst luck imaginable and had found a mineshaft without any golden apples.

Which was just absurd, if Wilbur was being honest, every mineshaft he and Techno had ever explored together always atleast had one apple, what was so different with this one? He knew it was possible, he knew it was probably the case here, but what the fuck were the odds of that? 1 in 7.5 trillion?

Wilbur chuckled to himself. He hadn't known why he had found that funny, but it was. Tommy looked at him weirdly, but it didn't matter, he was a child.

Another hiss drew their attention, as the two snapped back into position almost effortlessly, his arm drawing back the bow and notching an arrow, his brother drawing his sword with a flash of white as he pulled it from his inventory, its netherite blade gleamed with luster, as it glowed with a sheen of enchantingly beautiful magic runes. 

The two moved effortlessly as a horde of gigantic arthropods slammed against the cold stone floor and rushed at them, the blonde cleaving through the masses like a hot knife through butter, his older brother cutting off the stragglers with a marksman's sight, as the two charged through the ashes of dead spiders and moved along with their exploration, the dust blowing through the wind as Tommy slashed apart a piece of cobweb blocking their path. They would be fine.

* * *

They were not fine.

They were absolutely not fine.

Wilbur coughed as he leaned to the wall, his veins burning and his skin emitting small radioactive green particles. He had been poisoned, bit by cave spiders when they had passed through a spawner and Tommy couldn't break it fast enough. He felt sick, it made him feel like throwing up, his entire body was burning and he couldn't douse the flames.

"Wilbur- please just sit down-"

"I'm fine, Tommy- don't worry about me," Wilbur responded. 

Fire thrummed in his veins, and Wilbur was starting to believe his words even less than Tommy did. He coughed, and slumped on the floor as he sat down, his legs going limp and his eyes going blurry. His breathing was getting shorter, as Tommy hurried and fussed over him.

"It- it's gonna be okay Wil- we'll find a golden apple, and you'll be fine Wil, you'll be okay-" 

"Tommy- cough no, we're using the next golden apple we find on you and your hunger, poison isn't fatal- cough"

"We'll find two, Wilbur- please, just hang in there, block yourself in with some cobblestone- I'll be back, alright Wil?"

"Fine- just, cough hurry up, you child." Wilbur grit out, barely staying conscious as his arms glowed a pale white and cobblestone barriers erected themselves around him, surrounding his figure and protecting the man from the world around him.

It was funny, Wilbur mused, as he saw the retreating figure of his younger brother heading off to look for a golden apple, it was like their roles had changed and he hadn't known it until now. He remembered cold and rainy days, when Phil was away and Techno was tired, when Tommy had looked up to him and asked when their mother would come back. He remembered warm and sunny days when Techno had ruffled his brother's hair, when Phil would smile at them with pride and when Tommy had pulled his and Techno's arms as they ran to the fields and they had played.

~~Where did it all go wrong?~~

* * *

~~"Wilbur, why is life so mean?~~

~~"Ah, well, think of it like a clock, Tommy."~~

~~"Why a clock?"~~

~~"It's because that's where we are, Tommy. We're two cogs in the same clock, turning and helping it move on and making our mark on it, and it's a pretty shitty clock if I'm being honest."~~

~~"What does the clock stand for?"~~

~~"Life."~~

* * *

It had felt like hours since Tommy had gone, and WIlbur was starting to feel better as the poison seeped from his veins. He had always hated cavespider venom the most, since the authentic brew that most people used, including witches, were all at least slightly less concentrated than the raw, burning acid that flowed in the arthropods' veins.

Wilbur shook his head out of it, as he cleared his mind and endured the slight pain that remained. Techno wasn't here, so he was the oldest right now. And something that Wilbur learnt, whenever Techno wasn't around, was that being the oldest was absolutely shit. He had to constantly remain strong, he had to show no weakness around his younger brother, he was supposed to be the unbeatable hero, the role model. Techno had fit all those categories well. _Wilbur didn't._

For some reason, one or another, Tommy had always been there for him. Despite his shortcomings, despite him being overall worse than Techno, Tommy had chosen him. So, it was his responsibility to deliver, was it not? So he had, he became Tommy's hero, he became became Tommy's role model. He became everything he wasn't, and Wilbur was okay with that, he was okay with pretending. It was all for Tommy, all for his brother, and _gods be damned_ he'd do anything to make his brother smile.

"Wilbur- I'm back. I'm here."

Ah, speak of the devil.

* * *

Two brothers emerged from the ravine, dust and soot on their clothes and matching tired grins.

"Hey, WIlbur?" Tommy asked.

"What is it, Toms?" Wilbur responded in kind.

"I love you, big man."

"Love you too, you child. Now let's go, Tubbo must be worried sick for us. Better not keep your best friend waiting."

"Go on ahead, WIl- I- I got something to do, first."

WIlbur rose an eyebrow at that. "Don't take too long."

Tommy had waited until his brother's retreating figure had disappeared from the gleam of the moonlight, as the stars glanced over and peaked on their subjects. He grinned, as he pulled out an apple, golden and lustrous, with an **_enchanted_ **gleam. 

Tommy's grin widened, as he placed the apple back into his inventory. Dream was going to go down, and Tommy was going to be the one to do it, or die trying. And the boy had no plans of dying, anytime soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Too tired to make the end notes, its 11 something PM and I have speedran this the entire afternoon. Hope you enjoy!


End file.
